The present invention relates to a rearview mirror provided in the passenger compartment of a vehicle.
In recent years, with the development of intelligent transport systems (ITS), incorporation of an information network into vehicles is now under progress. Together with this trend, vehicles are equipped with a human machine interface (HMI) associated with a variety of information systems. The HMI is located at a location at which a driver can easily operate it, such as near the driver""s seat. For example, in an electronic toll collection system (ETC), a car-equipped ETC is provided near the driver""s seat as an HMI.
Generally, a variety of operation devices, a display, and the like are provided near the driver""s seat, so that it is sometimes difficult to ensure a space for installing a car-equipped ETC. To address this problem, conventionally, there has been proposed to arrange the car-equipped ETC within a rearview mirror which is provided with multiple functions. In the following, a conventional rearview mirror 51 will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 to 11.
As shown in FIG. 9, the rearview mirror 51 is located between a driver""s seat 54 and a passenger""s seat 55 in a front section of a passenger compartment 53 of a vehicle 52. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, the rearview mirror 51 includes a housing 56 and a reflector 57. The reflector 57 is fixed in the passenger compartment 53 to orient substantially toward the back of the vehicle. A slot 58, through which an IC card 159 can be inserted as a recording medium, is formed on a side facing the driver""s seat of the housing 56 (on the right side in FIGS. 10 and 11).
As shown in FIG. 11, the housing 56 contains an interface unit 59 and a data processing unit 60 which make up a car-equipped ETC. The interface unit 59 is provided with a card holder 59a which is in communication with the slot 58. The card holder 59a is formed such that the IC card 159 can be inserted into or removed from the card holder 59a in a direction substantially parallel with the mirror surface of the reflector 57.
For ensuring a backward field of view from the driver""s seat, the mirror surface of the rearview mirror 51 must be inclined toward the driver""s seat. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 9, the rearview mirror 51 is used with its mirror surface inclined toward the driver""s seat by up to 30 degrees. However, the rearview mirror 51 is set such that the IC card 159 is inserted in a direction substantially parallel with the mirror surface of the rearview mirror 51. For this reason, for inserting the IC card 159, the driver is obliged to insert the IC card 159 backward from a direction in which the vehicle 52 is running, as indicated by an arrow F1 in FIG. 9. In other words, the driver must insert the IC card 159 in front from a position far from the driver""s scat. Therefore, a windshield is likely to interfere with the driver""s hand or the like when the driver inserts or remove the IC card 159, making it difficult to perform operations involved in the insertion and removal of the IC card 159.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a rearview mirror which permits the driver to readily insert or remove a thin recording medium.
In order to attain the above object, the present invention provides a rearview mirror located between a driver""s seat and a front passenger""s seat in a front section of the passenger compartment of a vehicle. The rearview mirror includes a housing, a reflector and an interface. The housing includes a front surface facing the driver""s seat, a rear surface at the opposite side of the front surface, and a slot at a part closer to the driver""s seat than the passenger""s seat. The slot receives a recording medium that stores predetermined data. The reflector is attached to the front surface of the housing. The interface is located in the housing. The recording medium is attached to and removed from the interface by moving the recording medium along a predetermined moving axis. The interface performs at least one of reading of data from the recording medium and writing of data to the recording medium. The predetermined moving axis is inclined relative to the front surface of the housing such that the predetermined moving axis approaches the center of the housing.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description, taken in conjunction with be accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the invention.